Page 151 of A Warrior's Fate

Kai’s canines pierced her skin, and she cried out at the pain, the ecstasy. Flames roared through her in his wake, and she couldn’t breathe as they consumed her being, razing the world as she knew it to ash.

Her arms were tight around him to keep herself steady as she threw her head back against the wall to gasp down air. She swore she could feel it, the missing fragment of her soul that Kai had held, that he’d kept safe all this time, twining with her once again. “Kai.”

He answered her call by bringing his mouth back to hers, the tang of her blood on his tongue, and his kisses were as much a claim as his mark. Isla was stripped to nothing but her senses, ravaged by the smell of him, feel of him, the taste of him.

The kisses that followed weren’t deep enough. She couldn’t get him close enough. Feel enough.

Kai lifted her from the wall, mouth catering to her fresh mark before he pressed her down onto the mattress of the perfectly made bed. She was drowning in him as their tongues tangled again, and all she could think of was her need to remove all barriers between them.

Isla bypassed the buttons of his shirt to go straight for the waistband of his pants. She fiddled with the button and zipper until Kai grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head. Beneath his strength, she was powerless to move them.

He hummed his disagreement. “First, I get to have my fun.”

And that was fun she wasn’t opposed to as he made his way down her neck again. He took her jacket zipper between his teeth, pleased to find she had nothing but her bra underneath it, and pulled it down, down. Every move of his was marked by a kiss.

Please, she thought but wouldn’t let it out. If this was torture, she couldn’t imagine how it’d be when he got between her legs.

The sheer thought of his mouth there, of his cock, in time with when he wrapped his lips over her clothed nipple, made her whine louder than she’d intended. She’d bucked her hips towards him, desperate, but he held steady, interlacing their fingers above her.

“Hurry up.” She wouldn’t plead, but she urged her body forward again.

Kai lifted his head to look at her, amusement dancing with lust in his eyes.

Cold greeted her as he rose from the bed to remove his shirt, and she bit her lip as she took him in. The Goddess had blessed her ten-thousand times with him. She needed him against her again. Now.

Isla rose onto her knees, fully unzipping her jacket and tossing it off to the side. Her bra went next. Her nipples peaked against the chill that swept through, and she nearly quivered at the hungry stare Kai shot her way as she inched over to him.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her bare chest against his, knotting her fingers in his hair. Kai nodded his brows at her as she smiled at him, his own calloused fingers brushing up and down her bare waist, lowering to grab her ass.

“So impatient,” he chastised but his actions, his appreciation, spoke louder as he reached between them to brush his fingers soft and teasingly over where she’d ached for him most. They lifted to drop beneath her waistband, and they both groaned as he ran his touch over the slickness there—all for him. Isla dug her nails into his shoulders, his tattoo, gasping and jerking as he flicked over her clit.

Now, she leaned down into the crook of his neck and breathed his name. He shuddered at the caress on his skin, and that carnal part of her rose again. Isla pressed her lips to the spot just above his collarbone, nipping at the skin until she finally drew her teeth.

She’d never felt as animal as she did then. Never so powerful and in control as her mate’s pulse—an alpha’s pulse—thundered beneath her lips.

“Isla.”

Commanding, yet desperate.

Kai leaned into her, offering, ready, his power ebbing through the room laid bare in her presence, there for her to take.

Isla traced her tongue over his skin, a final tease that had him growling and making the bond pull in a way that stole her breath.

Mine.

Isla braced herself and, running on nothing but primal instinct, bared down with her teeth and claimed her mate.

Kai cursed, arching into her as she bit deeper, the tang of his blood filling her mouth, something like a current flowing between them. His fingers dug into her sides, pulling her closer as if to merge their souls into one.

When Isla lifted her head, just inches from his, their chests heaving in the same heavy cadence, all they could do was stare at each other. Neither spoke as the threads coiled around them, burned at their feet. Entanglements of gold and shadow nearly tangible in the air. Singing. Sighing. Isla could smell the bond as it forged between them. Taste it.

It had been a few heartbeats of only their echoing breaths before both of them…laughed.

They actually laughed.

Unbridled joy shone on both of their flushed faces as the sounds flittered through the room. Because all of this, already, had felt too good. Too raw and real and euphoric.

And they hadn’t even had sex yet.

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